Natural order

fruit wants to be eaten
so the sweetness of the apple
bruised beneath the tree
how the bee sings as in pollen
and the fragrance beckons me

Neighbors

when you put the fence back up
I hung out banners
to hide its rusted ugliness

I could have waited

now weeds have grown
and blossomed over

New Hampshire Babysitter, Winter, 1968

It’s my job to keep the LaCroix kids quiet
on the way to Laconia from the Manchester
airport. McCarthy got a limo. Kennedy
got a private plane. But hope’s dimming.
Now it’s Leo’s station wagon with most of the stuff
shoved in the back with the dog. I try Dr. Suess,
puppets, a complete bodyblock, but Tony and Tina
still manage to hit Senator McGovern
with a ski pole. Good thing he wears a hard hat.

Nigeria?

Hello

IT IS MY PLEASURE TO WRITE TO YOU AFTER OUR SEVEN
DAYS FASTING AND PRAYERS,

I am mrs rose savimbi
I am Johnson Mgabe
I am Miss Janet Koffi
I am madam Ninfa R.Arcangel
I am Baldwin Onuigbo

Where do you reside?
I am really happy to send the mail
Do you ever intend to work in U.K?
Are you married?
Have you been working?

I am writing this letter with due respect and heart
full of tears since we have not know or mate ourselves
previously I apologized for using this medium to reach
you for a transaction/business of this magnitude, but
this is due to Confidentiality and prompt access
reposed on this medium

Sorry I do not know you very well, and i believe this
is not going to cost you any inconvinenceeath. Forgive
my indignation if this message comes to you as a
surprise and May offend your personality

I am broken hearted and needs someone to trust,
without remembering my past
And forsaken experiences from close confidants and
relations.

My name is fatu mohammed

I am the above named person from Malaysia but now
undergoing medical
Treatment in London

We were married for eleven years without a child. He
died after a brief illness that lasted for only four
days. Before His death we were both born again
Christians. Since his death I Decided not to re-marry
or get a child outside my matrimonial home which The
Bible is against

I'll be in Paris tomorrow.
Call me whenever you're free .

Nightcall

footstep under dream murmur midnight achings,
palm, fingertip, electric trembling waking,
earthen body erasing scar-heavy limbs
willow whisper visitor

Kelley White is a mother of three, Quaker, inner-city pediatrician for more than twenty years, collector of stray animals and seeker after Buddha nature. Her two full-length poetry collections, The Patient Presents and Late, were published by The People's Press. Her two chapbooks, I am going to walk toward the sanctuary and Against Medical Advice, were put out by Pudding House.

Copyright 2005, Kelley White. This work is protected under the U.S. copyright laws. It may not be reproduced, reprinted, reused, or altered without the expressed written permission of the author.